Diapers & Economics…Part I
This is something that has been mulling around in my brain for weeks. I wasn’t sure how to get it out of my head, or actually prove it. I wanted to know what it costs to wash my diapers, as I never noticed an increase in the utility bill when I started cloth diapering 3 years ago (this time around). I didn’t even notice an increase when I had 2 in diapers.

I asked a trusted professional what it costs in water use to run the washer and he came up with $0.01 in water use based on 20 gallons for his area. I also found a figure online of $0.11 based on 40 gallons. So I’m going to split the difference….$0.06 in water use per load. I found it to cost about $0.32 in electricity to heat the water for a warm/cold wash (this is what I do). I’m going to add in another $0.14 for the cold rinses before and at the end of the diapers (about equal to a full cold load), and another $0.06 for the extra water. So the total I am going to go with in water use and electricity for each load of diapers (consisting of pre-rinse, warm/cold wash/rinse cycle, and post rinse) is: $0.58.

I use Charlie’s soap to wash all my laundry. Since I am writing this as a guide for my customers, we will assume the retail price per load of $0.18

$0.76 per load washed.

Now to dry the load….hang it outside. Free! If its raining it will cost about $0.36.

Total $1.12 for about 24 diapers washed and dried. That’s less then $0.05 per diaper.
Washing your diapers every other day for 1 year will cost $204.40 ($204.96 on leap year).

That’s my very rough estimate according to my household.